We didn’t plan it like this and never saw it coming. It began in the mountains of Honduras ca. 2002.

HOW IT STARTED…

About a year later, Dr. David Sperow and his wife, Marty, founded La Cima World Missions after returning from Honduras where they had served in a rural mission medical and dental clinic for 1.5 years. While living in Honduras, God started revealing a Plan which is still unfolding, 20+ years later. Turns out our missionary friend Jimmy Usher was right when he told us many, many moons ago: “the Call is never static”.

Indeed, the Call has not been static for us. After organizing and leading dental and medical teams to Honduras for many years, God shifted our geography to Asia, Micronesia and the Middle East. At times, even the scope of our work moved outside of dental and medical patient care. For example, we held dental seminars for the Health Department on the island of Yap in Micronesia, delivered emergency food relief to Christian and Yezidi refugees in Iraq or helped with construction & remodeling of a rehabilitation center in Vietnam, finishing up the work week by throwing a Special Olympics party for the little patients, complete with karaoke and traditional folk dancing.

From the beginning, La Cima has functioned as part of The Body by working in partnership with missionaries on the ground. When our team lands in our partners’ country, La Cima ceases to exist. We trust our partners’ cultural expertise and experience, as well as their spiritual conviction, to provide the time, place, scope and manner of our work. Our partners trust our expertise and experience to handle the often daunting and time-consuming logistics to assemble, bring and lead a dental or medical team. While we bring all the love, compassion and high standard of care to the table, our goal is to work hand in hand with our partners on the ground in order to fulfill the Great Commission stated in Matthew 28:18-20: And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

 HOW IT’S GOING…

After gaining considerable experience leading many teams to many places for over 20 years, the Call is shifting once again. We are getting a step closer to what we have been wanting from day 1 of La Cima: work ourselves out of a job by raising the next generations of team leaders. By the grace of God this has already been accomplished as many of our past team members have gone out for short- and long-term missions commitments to places we will never get to go, doing things we will never get to do. We are grateful and proud of them! Please keep out-mission-tripping us! 😊

From leading teams to leading leaders

In 2023, the time had finally come for another puzzle piece to fall into place: We graduated our first group of formally and rigorously trained team leaders. While we had always prepped team members on logistical, cultural and spiritual issues before going and serving with La Cima, last year’s mission trip was specifically designed as a training seminar for team leaders. For 8 months, we met regularly and trained hands-on on every aspect of organizing and leading a mission team. Then we got on a plane and put the training modules into practice in the mission field. We are thrilled to report that this team took ownership and took charge. Team members are now in the process of training and leading mission teams or embarking on their own ministry journey in obedience to the Call.

There are still so many opportunities to explore, places to go and people to serve. We expect to stay busy during this transition period between leading teams and leading leaders. On the home front, we have been guiding young adult and youth groups with the goal of imparting biblical knowledge and missions insights we wish someone had told us 10 – 40 years ago. As Deacon of Missions at Fox Creek Church in our hometown, Lawrenceburg KY, David is developing and spearheading a missions and ministry culture with heavy emphasis on getting youngsters and their parents involved. Particularly exciting are David’s 3-2-1 Initiative and 50-50 for the 10-40 which any youth pastor or church is welcome to use.
If you are a dental professional or student, you may run into Dr. Dave at the upcoming inaugural Great Commission Dental Conference in Dallas/Ft. Worth TX 10/4 - 10/5/24, where he’s one of the guest speakers.

To be continued…